Change Your Brain Every Day - Mental Health & COVID-19 Questions Answered

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

In the fourth and final episode of this week’s series on pandemic pandemonium, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen answer some of your most pressing questions about regarding COVID-19 and brain health in general. This episode features such topics as how to boost serotonin, managing OCD disorder during a pandemic, COVID and brain damage, autism/ADHD, and supplements to help boost activity in the frontal lobes. 

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to Brainmd.com. Welcome back. We are so grateful to you as our community, and we're just thankful that you're here with us this week. And in this episode,

we're going to answer your questions about the pandemic, about stress related to the pandemic, about challenges you're having at home, and lots of other things. But before we do, whatever you learn, if you could just keep notes. I think that's a great thing. I'm always writing notes to myself on what I want to keep. And then take a picture of it. Post it on any of your social media sites about how this episode may help you. So question number one, natural remedies for OCD, please. Exercise for sure. Exercise boosts serotonin. So it's actually one of the most searched terms on the internet. How

do you naturally boost serotonin? Exercise, smart carbohydrates. So people have OCD probably should not go on the diet or keto can make them prettier. Chloe, our 17 year old, she wanted to be really healthy. And so she did a really strict version of keto. And I kept telling her, you probably need some more carbs. She started spinning on negative thoughts. And so, cause she's got a super busy brain. So be careful if you've got a busy brain or OCD,

you probably need to throw in maybe some sweet potato or half of an apple with some almond butter. You don't want to go crazy. Don't have dumb carbs, but some smart carbs can actually settle you down. And then also what about things like GABA or 5-HTP? 5-HTP, so serotonin mood support or happy saffron or brain MD supplements can help.

GABA can help the anxiety. And then thought stopping. So when you get a thought in your head that's happened more than three times, get up physically and go do something else. And when you are tempted to check, don't. And you're like, oh, well, that's not easy. And I know initially the anxiety will skyrocket, but every time you give in to the compulsive behavior,

you make it more likely you're going to give into it again. So fighting the urge can really help fight OCD. When you talk about thought stopping, it reminds me when I meditate, because sometimes you have these random thoughts pop in your head that you don't want to think about. And you're trying to settle yourself down and calm yourself down. All of a sudden your list pops in your head. And I always imagine a big broom just sort of pushing it away. It's like, okay, take a deep breath and then just start over. Don't beat yourself up. Just start over. Yeah, that's really great. Hey, I also want to read a review.

We haven't been reading reviews. Brain Warrior Equals Better Life by Delta2006. I was delighted with the recent episodes on interactive metronome. I've used this intervention with children with autism and ADHD and adults with sensory processing disorders and with a 95-year-old woman post-stroke.

The elderly woman regained her ability to use both of her hands together to prepare simple meals. Her standing, balance, and tolerance improved from two minutes to more than 30 minutes. Her daughter reported that her mother seemed sharper after receiving the interactive metronome and the occupational therapy. After the intervention during my personal training period, I noticed that my typing speed, previously at 60 words per minute,

was considerably faster. I recommend the podcast to teachers and families with whom I currently work. I love that. Keep the episodes coming. So apparently that episode on the metronome did like, it skyrocketed. It did incredibly well. It was one of our best performing. And what I love about our podcast is there's things that we get to like research all these things and learn all these things from these experts. I didn't even realize that was a big therapy. I didn't realize it was as big as it was. And it just was so people were so interested in it. You should hang out with me more. I know. All right. Another question. Can COVID-19 cause brain damage? We answered that.

The answer is absolutely can. So and your best defense against COVID-19 is your immune system. Keep your inflammation down and your immune system strong. You know, along with that question, what are the lingering side effects? Fatigue seems to be one of the real big... But I don't know that we really know long-term. Well, we don't because this thing's only been known this year. So I worry about, because of i worry that long-term damage to organs is what we're going to like they're going to like but it's like slow like a slow burning fire kind of like inflammation but it's

going to start showing up later yeah so what's going to happen to the brains of children with adhd and autism spectrum disorders from wearing masks not only their brain health due to lack of oxygen, but also their social skills due to not being able to properly see people's facial expressions because everyone has a mask on. Hello, this has been my concern all along. So I've been really worried about this. There are whole societies that wear facial coverings. And that doesn't mean that it's not bad for you. No, but I think you should not put everybody on an N95 respirator. That facial coverings do a couple of things.

One, they decrease the spread. And two, it just reminds you you're in the middle of a pandemic. We need to be thoughtful and careful on how we interact with people. So we often, people like this about our show, most of them, is that we often have some spirited interaction about this because I agree with you about the, I mean, obviously that's rational. You want to slow the spread of the virus or stop it. Um, but I, I actually really resonate with this person who wrote this having three kids at school. And one of them is 10. Um, we've got our two nieces living with us. So the 10 year old, I worry these kids, one of two things is going to happen. They're not going to be able to have their normal activity level. Obviously they're already slowing that down, but they're not going to get that

exercise because I got to tell you when I wear a mask and I'm out moving and it's hot outside, I feel nauseous, dizzy. I don't feel good. These kids are so active, it's going to really decrease their activity levels. She had a good point about kids with ADD. They really need to be able to move. I actually really resonate with you when you're talking about this. And I don't necessarily have the answer. And I think that's part of why they're doing distance learning, at least in California, we're starting school at home because they couldn't, we couldn't agree on that. The parents and the teachers and the, and the district could not agree on many of those things. And then additionally, though, I agree with you about the facial coverings and

being able to read people's faces, because I really do think that being able to read people's faces, understanding social cues is vital. So we need to come up with an exercise. If people are wearing masks, we need to really like have some way to help these kids understand. Well, and perhaps when they're exercising, they're not wearing masks. But they haven't come up with that yet in California. That, you know, we just have to be thoughtful and careful. The whole issue with masks and autism is really hard because those kids have sensory processing disorders. They don't like change. And it becomes really painful. On TACA's website, T-A-C-A now,

N-O-W dot org, they actually have videos about how to manage kids with ADHD and autism and masks. And that's so critical. Do you remember the day Chloe came home? Our daughter works at a restaurant and she came home almost in tears. She felt so bad for this woman that came to the restaurant. She's a host and it's an outdoor restaurant, but you still have to wear masks to your table. And it's just a rule and everybody has to do it. But this woman came and she had a child who was autistic. And some of the people had the attitude, well, then don't bring your kid out. If you can't get your kid to wear a mask, then don't bring your kid out if you can't get your kid to wear a mask then don't don't bring your kid out but she my daughter had a chance to actually talk to her and just her heart broke for this woman because she's like i can't leave my

house i can't go to the grocery store i mean we don't really think about those implications for people until you really hear it from their perspective and so chloe went and talked to her manager she's like is there anything we can do? And they made it happen. They took her through a back way where she wasn't going to be exposed to people and isolated a table for them. They actually made it work. So I think using your voice, my point is if you actually don't just get angry and frustrated with people, but actually take a minute to try to connect with people, gain rapport and

get them to hear your story. I think you're going to find more people will want to help you. So, all right. One more question would really appreciate this is from Jesse, but Tony would really appreciate it. If you can tell me which brain ND supplements would help my temporal loads and help me focus.

So focus and energy, and energy for focus. And we often like GABA calming to help relax, prevent temporal lobe issues. We're so grateful that you listened to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. If you've learned anything, please leave us a comment, question, or review from Brain Warriors Way at brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. Whatever you learned, post it on any of your social media sites, hashtag Brain Warriors Way podcast.

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